CSU, Chico News

The University Art Gallery at California State University, Chico presents “New/Re:new,” an exhibition of work by six faculty members who teach in the Department of Art and Art History Feb, 23 – March 16, 2000.

Jean Gallagher and James Kuiper, both CSU, Chico art professors since 1990, have recently returned from sabbatical. Robert Herhusky, Wei Hsueh, Masami Toku and Nanette Wylde are new or newly appointed tenure-track faculty in the art department.

“New/Re:new” reflects a new direction for the gallery’s biennial faculty exhibitions. In years past, CSU, Chico’s art department faculty exhibitions have featured one or two works by all current faculty members. In an alternative approach, a smaller group of faculty artists will be invited to exhibit a group of their works. This approach will provide viewers with a larger sampling of each artist’s work and allow for innovative curatorial themes.

The exhibition begins Feb. 23 and continues through March 16. A special end-of-exhibition reception will be held on Wednesday, March 15, 5-7 p.m. The artists will also show slides and discuss their work in a series of artist talks. The talks will take place at 2:15 p.m. in the gallery on the following dates: Gallagher: Thursday, March 2; Hsueh: Tuesday, March 7; Wylde: Wednesday, March 8; Herhusky: Monday, March 13; Kuiper: Tuesday, March 14; Masami Toku: Wednesday, March 15.

The two artists recently returned from sabbatical are Jean Gallagher and James Kuiper. Gallagher, whose emphasis is installation and painting, has been at CSU, Chico since 1990 and received her doctor of arts from New York University in 1993. Most recently, her multimedia piece “Moondial” was acquired by the Redding Museum, and she has been working on “Stations,” a series of paintings about rare and endangered pre-Polynesian plants, for Gallery Iolani in Hawaii.

Kuiper, whose abstract landscapes have been shown in hundreds of venues over the past twenty years, received his MFA from Michigan State in 1976 and has been at CSU, Chico since 1990. He has most recently been working and exhibiting in Alaska and Spain.

The four new tenure-track artists are Robert Herhusky, Wei Hsueh, Masami Toku, and Nanette Wylde. Herhusky, a sculptor, has been at CSU, Chico since 1986 and received his MFA from the California College of Arts and Crafts in 1985. His primary media are cast glass and wood, and his art of late reflects his interest in the “shameless destruction of the temperate rain forest of the North American continent.”

Art

Hsueh received her MFA from Syracuse University in 1999 and works with multiple media. Her sculpture/photography installations are concerned with social categories, sexuality, and eroticism. She draws parallels between “the act of calligraphic writing and social/political construction,” both of which “signify and mean nothing.”

Toku received her Doctorate in Education from the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign in 1998. With a background in water color and art education, she is interested in the inescapable aspects of human nature, called Goh in Japanese.

Wylde has been at Chico State since 1998 and received her MFA from Ohio State. Her digital work is informed as much by conceptual art as by electronic media.

The exhibition, reception and gallery talks are free and open to the public. The gallery is located in Alva Taylor Hall, California State University, Chico, at First Street between Salem and Normal Streets. Regular gallery hours are Monday through Friday, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. and Sunday from noon to 4 p.m.

For more information please contact, Jason Tannen, gallery curator, at 530-898-5864.

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This entry was posted on Friday, February 11th, 2000 at 12:23 pm and is filed under 2000 Spring.